“Coronavirus: China’s belt and road plan hits roadblock as virus pinches supply of materials and workers”, 26 April 2020

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is struggling to shrug off the impact of supply chain ruptures, travel restrictions and stringent border controls caused by the coronavirus pandemic, as the spectre of project delays and cost overruns raises questions about the viability of future projects…

… flagship projects along China’s modern-day Silk Road, which seeks to link Asia, Europe and Africa with a network of ports, motorways and railways, are running into a host of problems…

Chinese workers made up about a fifth of the workforce, but government restrictions to contain the virus had prevented many of them from returning, he said…

… a controversial Chinese-backed dam being built in the Batang Toru rainforest on the island of Sumatra – the only known habitat of the endangered Tapanuli orangutan – is also seeing delays due to travel bans on Chinese workers, local media have reported…

As the coronavirus has spread around the globe, government controls have crippled international connectivity, making it hard for some belt and road projects to access vital Chinese equipment, components and specialist labour, even as the world’s second-largest economy restarts its manufacturing engines…

One of Sri Lanka’s biggest belt and road developments, Port City Colombo, a mega city development built on land reclaimed from the Indian Ocean, has also been affected by the pandemic…

The Sri Lankan government has implemented a complete ban on the import of so-called non-essential goods… cutting off imports of Chinese construction equipment and machinery, a Sri Lankan economist and former government official said…

Despite assurances from Beijing that delays to projects are limited and temporary, some analysts are less sanguine. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said in a report… the pandemic would derail belt and road cooperation in 2020…

Marie Lam-Frendo, chief executive of the G20’s Global Infrastructure Hub, said the pandemic’s impact on the belt and road plan would be felt most keenly in greenfield projects...

There were indications that belt and road projects closer to China, especially in Southeast Asia, were being hampered by the irregular flow of Chinese workers and construction supply, Lam-Frendo said... 

[Also referred to Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China]